Anglo-Spanish War (1796–1808)

The Anglo-Spanish War between 1796 and 1808 was a part of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.

In the War of the First Coalition, Spain had fought against Revolutionary France and had been defeated.
In 1796 Prime Minister Godoy faced a decision: whether to continue to fight Revolutionary France or to join the French side and hope for better times. He chose the latter and signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1796, allying Spain to France, in exchange for French support for Charles IV's relations ruling the Italian Duchy of Parma.

In response, the British blockaded Spain in 1797 and separated her colonial empire from the mother country. By the end of 1798, the Spanish fleet had been defeated by the British in the Battle of Cape St Vincent (1797), and Minorca and Trinidad were occupied. The Treaty of Amiens in 1802 provided for a temporary truce in hostilities, only to be broken in 1804 when the British captured a Spanish treasure fleet off Cadiz. The French planned an invasion of England in the coming year; the Spanish fleet was to be an integral part in assisting this invasion. At the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the Spanish navy and the French Mediterranean fleet, attempting to join forces with the French fleets in the north for the invasion, were attacked by Admiral Lord Nelson at the head of a British fleet in one of history's greatest naval engagements. The disastrous defeat that the Spanish and French suffered assured British control of the seas for a century, and seriously shook the resolve of the Spanish who began to doubt the usefulness of their alliance to France.

After Trafalgar, Godoy withdrew from the Continental System that Napoleon had devised to combat Britain, only to join it again in 1807 after Napoleon had defeated the Prussians. Napoleon, however, had lost his faith in Godoy and King Charles; there was also growing support in Spain for the king's son, Ferdinand, who opposed the increasingly unpopular Godoy. Ferdinand, however, favored an alliance with Britain, and Napoleon doubted the trustworthiness of any Spanish royalty.

In 1807 France and Spain invaded Portugal, and on December 1 Lisbon was captured with no military opposition. In the beginning of 1808 the French presence in Spain was so predominant that it led to revolt. Napoleon then removed King Charles and his son Ferdinand to Bayonne and forced them both to abdicate on May 5, giving the throne to his brother Joseph. This led to the Peninsular War, and the de facto end of the Anglo-Spanish War.